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Armstrong’s estate — including his two sons, Mark and Rick — blamed Mercy Health-Fairfield Hospital’s care for their 82-year-old father’s death in court documents theTimessaid it received from an unknown sender, as well as documents from the Hamilton County Probate Court in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Several of Armstrong’s family members, including his sons and daughter-in-law, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.
According to theTimes,Armstrong was recovering after surgery at the Fairfield hospital in 2012, “but when nurses removed the wires for a temporary pacemaker, he began to bleed into the membrane surrounding the heart, leading to a cascade of problems that resulted in his death on Aug. 25.”
TheTimesreferenced an email that Wendy R. Armstrong, who is both a lawyer and Mark’s wife, sent to the hospital’s lawyers in July of 2014 about how the brothers were heading to Florida for the 45th anniversary of her father-in-law’s moon landing.
Neil Armstrong.Ralph Morse/Getty Images
The nearly $5.2 million settlement reportedly went to 10 family members: Armstrong’s sons equally split the majority of the money, while $250,000 was given to his brother and sister, Dean A. Armstrong and June L. Hoffman, and $24,000 was provided to each of his six grandchildren, theTimesreported.
His widow Carol, the executor of the estate, signed off on the settlement, theTimesreported.
“I had no choice — it was either that or lose my job as executor,” Carol, who did not receive any of the money, told theTimes.
The newspaper reported that Carol was “asked if that meant she had not approved of the claim against the hospital,” to which she replied, “I don’t think I can answer that,” suggesting that she had signed a confidentiality agreement.
Neil Armstrong.NASA/Getty Images
In a statement to PEOPLE, Bon Secours Mercy Health — a Catholic hospital group to which Fairfield belongs — wrote that “our commitment to patient privacy and dignity is a responsibility we take very seriously, and we are unable to discuss any individual or his or her care. The public nature of these details is very disappointing — both for our ministry and the patient’s family who had wished to keep this legal matter private.”
“We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures,” Armstrong’s family said in a statement after his death in 2012.
The statement described the astronaut as “our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend,” and also as “a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job.”
source: people.com
